IFI International News 2017

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MARCH 2017

Coinciding with St Patrick’s Day events worldwide, IFI International was delighted that its programmes visited a number of film festivals across the globe to screen homegrown hits such as A Date for Mad Mary, Sing Street, The Queen of Ireland, and Mattress Men.

Highlights included a collaboration with the Embassy of Ireland, Argentina, to present ten Irish films, both old and new, at the National Audio Visual Authority of Argentina (INCAA). The festival ran from March 16th to 22nd and featured Once, Sing Street, Ryan’s Daughter and Eliza: Queen of Paraguay. Director Aoife Kelleher attended the festival to present her award-winning documentary One Million Dubliners.

At the Danish Film Institute (DFI) in Copenhagen, IFI International and the Embassy of Ireland, Denmark, presented an Irish film season which ran from March 2nd until March 15th. The season opened with John Carney’s Sing Street and closed with Conor Horgan’sThe Queen of Ireland. Horgan was on hand to present his documentary about drag artist Panti Bliss, while Risteard O’Domhnaill attended with his documentary, Atlantic.

Mattress Men – Screened at Shebeen Flick, Berlin on 18th March

Shebeen Flick, the Irish film festival in Berlin and Düsseldorf, opened on March 16th with the German premiere of History’s Future, a German-Irish co-production, presented in the presence of lead actor Mark O’Halloran (Adam and Paul, Viva). The festival screened a total of 25 feature and short films, which represented a doubling of last year’s programme. Festival highlights also included screenings of Benjamin Cleary’s Oscar-winning short, Stutterer, Colm Quinn’s Mattress Men, and A Date for Mad Mary, directed by Darren Thornton who also attended the festival.

The Moscow Irish Film Festival celebrated its 10th anniversary this year with a wide-ranging programme of screenings including The Butcher Boy and My Left Foot, and more recent releases Room and Brooklyn. Directors Peter Murphy and Rachel Moriarty presented Traders, Richie Smyth screened The Siege of Jadotville, and actress Seána Kerslake introduced with A Date for Mad Mary. The festival opened on March 15th at Karo 11 Oktyabr with a screening of Sing Street, and it ran until March 26th.

The Capital Irish Film Festival (CIFF) ran from the 2nd to the 5th of March and included an opening night screening of Henrietta Norton’s Born and Reared. Other films screening this year included Sing Street, Bobby Sands: 66 Days, South and The Young Offenders.

Speaking about the festival, co-director Pat Reilly commented, “Capital Irish Film Festival (CIFF) broke all attendance records. Not only did our core audience numbers increase but we had many new audience members who had no connection to Ireland. They were knowledgeable about the film subjects and the issues and engaged with the five visiting Irish filmmakers in the talk backs. Irish filmmakers certainly seized the opportunity to demonstrate their talents and explain the growth of the film industry in Ireland.”

The Boston Irish Film Festival (BIFF) ran this year from March 23rd to 26th with a wide-ranging programme including Mattress Men, Des Henderson’s award-winning documentary How to Diffuse a Bomb: The Project Children Story, and Liam McGrath’s Paddy Moloney: Chieftain. Actors Seána Kerslake and Tara Lee attended the festival for the presentation of A Date for Mad Mary.

The Young Offenders – Screening at the Irish Film Festa, Rome

Other festivals in March included the fifth Belgrade Irish Film Festival, which ran from March 6th to 22nd and featured a workshop with David Caffrey, the award-winning director of Divorcing Jack and Love/Hate. The festival this year had a decidedly rock’n’roll feel with films such as Frank, Good Vibrations and Ghost Blues: The Story of Rory Gallagher screening.

Elsewhere, the Irish Film Festa, Rome runs from March 30th to April 2nd, while the St Patrick’s Film Festival London, running from March 17th to 19th, included screenings of Traders, The Young Offenders, and Song of the Sea.

Finally, this year’s Irish Festival in Hong Kong was a huge success and finished last Saturday. The festival focussed on Irish animation in collaboration with Animation Ireland, and included a programme of shorts and a workshop presented by Steve Woods and Moe Honan.

Check our calendar regularly for updates on IFI International screenings of Irish film around the globe!

IFI International is the IFI’s Irish Film Programming service for international exhibitors, and is supported by Culture Ireland. For more information, please contact Eleanor Melinn at emelinn@irishfilm.ie or call +353 1 679 5744.